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Watching that video of the car accelerate I remember being awestruck how fast circa 1990 my Taiyo RC Fast Traxx could go.

I remember my dad and I scaling up the math (I was only 10 so I needed a little help) and I remember asking him why normal cars didn’t have batteries.

I don’t recall the answer but it was long... I also was quite distracted with my new RC toy car .. err tank (google fast traxx).

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The answer was "NiCd batteries are way too expensive, lead acid batteries are way too heavy, and both have way too short a cycle life."

Deep cycle lead-acid batteries have fine cycle lives, and indeed were (and are) used for driving golf carts. However, they trade off for lower specific power, which makes them unsuitable for a full-sized, highway-speed-reaching car.

The 2001 Honda Insight was built with NiMH cells -- not quite NiCd, but still doable.

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